Impact resistance of short bamboo fibre reinforced polyester concretes

Abstract

Bamboo fibre is becoming more important as reinforcement in polymer composites owing to its environment sustainability and cost effectiveness. This study examines the performance of bamboo/polyester concretes under impact loading. Specimens at fibre volume fractions of 40 vol.%, 50 vol.% and 60 vol.% and 3 mm, 7 mm and 10 mm fibre lengths were fabricated. Results showed that the optimum impact resistance was attained at 50 vol.%/10 mm, with 16.6 times higher compared to neat polyester. Scanning electron micrographs revealed that the failure mechanisms include matrix cracking, fibre/matrix debonding, fibre pull-out, fibre end damage, fibre splitting and sand particles debonding. In addition, by relating the experimental results to a theoretical model, the damage zone size was found to increase with the fibre length except at 60 vol.%/10 mm, which could be due to fibre–fibre interaction. Results suggest that bamboo fibre is a good candidate to enhance the impact resistance of polyester concrete.